How Medical Debt Drives Prices UpSept 2007
As the cost of
group health insurance has gone up, employers have been forced to pass costs on to employees, or to cut out employer based insurance at all. But, as it's made clear at MSNBC, those costs, fueled by everything from rising healthcare to medical debt, are being passed on to some individual health insurance policies.
The article at
msnbc.msn.com analyzes how it is that bad debts at hospitals from unpaid patient bills are triggering deep and growing problems within the US healthcare system, as up-front costs are increasingly passed on to consumers and growing numbers of people are opting out of health insurance.
It's a vicious cycle: the rising costs of healthcare make it difficult, if not impossible, for employers to offer group health insurance to their employees. What has fueled the rise in costs? A number of factors are contributing, including expensive treatments and medications, the increasingly unhealthy state of most Americans, and when they get sick, medical debt.
Medical debt is on the rise, and it's wreaking havoc on an already burdened system. "Bad debts are increasingly driving a little-discussed vicious circle. Hospitals seeing more debt from insured patients can react by pushing insurers to help them offset it. This in turn can push insurers to charge higher premiums to employers, which can force employers to place more of the risk of healthcare costs on to their employees."
And this affects
individual health insurance as well. Individual health insurance is where many people turn when their employers can't afford to offer them group health insurance. As the costs for healthcare filter down to those with coverage, the cost of individual coverage can go up.
Facts on:
Group Health Insurance vs. Individual Health Insurance
Did you know...
Rising costs of healthcare make it difficult for employers to offer group health insurance to their employees?
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Thankfully there are several different kinds of coverage available for individuals in need. Cafeteria style plans allow people to pay only for the services they need, and for those who have minimal insurance from their employer, there are many plans that can fill in the gaps.
And in every case, it's important that consumers stay healthy and get regular checkups. By doing those two things, medical debt and healthcare costs could be reduced by the billions.
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